22nd January

Disclaimer: Please note that the views in today’s blog are my own and are not necessarily shared by Guildford and District Rescue.

I’d grown up with family dogs. Our first, ‘George’, an Alsatian cross, was a 2 month old puppy when my dad first brought him home. A lady he was installing a telephone line for in a block of flats couldn’t cope, and pleaded for my dad to take him. George led a long and happy life so we didn’t get our next dog until I was into my early twenties. ‘Marble’, a ten week old staff and the biggest of his litter, had been advertised in the local paper when we bought him. Having such an abundance of character and intelligence, it was Marble who began our fondness for the breed - my mum even gets a staffy calendar every year for Christmas. Marble, now almost 14, is still with my parents in our West London family home, although he is far less sprightly than he used to be.

Now into my early 30’s, a homeowner with a stable job, a reasonably sized garden and surrounded by woodland and country walks, it was time to get a dog of my own. There was only going to be one breed that I’d consider. My wife, Catherine, had never owned a dog before and was less keen! However I managed to talk her around. Because we both worked it wouldn’t have been right to take on a puppy, so we decided on a rescue dog. We contacted Battersea who sent a nice old man who took one look at us and our house and decided that we were perfect candidates to rehome a 3-4 year old rescue. He gave us lots of useful advice about how to settle a dog in and what to expect. I took a day off of work; we drove down to Battersea; fell in love with a red Peckham staff called ‘Roy’; and waited excitedly and anxiously for our interview. And we waited… After 2 hours (which felt much longer) our ticket number finally appeared on the screen and somebody saw us. We were assessed against the dog we had chosen and told that our 8 out of 10 'score' wasn’t high enough to rehome him. We lost points on the grounds that we both worked and would leave the dog unattended for too long, and also because we hadn’t ever technically owned a dog in our own right before so had no experience with the breed. The computer said ‘no’. We were told that occasionally they get older staffies which might be more suitable for us, but the lady who deals with them is on holiday and would call us when one became available. We never received that call. Curiously, we were offered a 4 year old Bullmastiff…

We left disappointed and confused about why we had been given false hope by the home-check. We also felt frustrated. As everybody knows Battersea is full of Staffordshire Bull Terriers and staffy crosses. However if you want to give one a home you would need to be permanently at home , not have kids (or at least no youngsters in the majority of cases), not have other pets, have a home with a garden (preferably outside London) and have previous experience with the breed. We wondered how many people walking through Battersea’s doors could match those expectations, and we felt that we understood why their kennels are wall to wall with staffies.

After a couple of weeks and nearly giving up on owning a dog, yet believing we could provide a good home, I thought I’d try again. I discovered Staffordshire Bull Terrier Welfare’s webpage and got in touch with John Laker who sent us some forms. We completed and returned them, and shortly afterwards were contacted by Alison at Guildford & District SBT Rescue. She did a home-check but also had concerns about how long a dog would be left alone. I assured Alison that I worked locally and would go home every lunch time (a promise which I maintain today). We made appointments to see two dogs which were available. We felt that the first, a brindle bitch called Nettle, was a bit too old and wouldn’t benefit from the long walks which we had planned. Catherine went to see the second dog, Poppy, who had been in Kennels for several months and reported back that she was ‘mad’ and ‘out of control’…but if I was to see her I would probably fall in love with her!

After a weekend of hard work putting up 6 foot fences to secure our garden, we met Alison at the kennels, paid a donation and put Poppy in the car. She was as good as gold in the car during the journey home… 

(Continues tomorrow)